"Last edited time" property in Notion database doesn't update when an existing Zotero note is edited

[ERC6]

I’m facing an issue with the Notero integration. When I edit an existing note in Zotero, the “Last edited time” property in the Notion database doesn’t update. I would like to sort the database in Notion by the last edited date to track my recent activities, but this only works when I create a new note in Zotero, not when I edit an existing one. Is this the expected behavior or am I missing something? Thank you!

[dvanoni]

Hi @ERC6, thanks for reporting this! I've also noticed this in passing but never looked into it much. I just confirmed that I can replicate the issue.

After some testing, here's what I've discovered:

• Syncing page properties to Notion updates the "Last edited time."
• Creating a new note in Zotero causes an update to its parent item, and this triggers a sync of the page properties.
• Updating an existing note in Zotero does not cause an update to its parent and thus does not sync page properties.
• Updating the content of a Notion page via the API (e.g. by updating a note) does not update the "Last edited time."
• Updating the content of a Notion page yourself does update the "Last edited time."

The discrepancy between those last two points make me wonder if there's something strange happening with the Notion API. I'm going to reach out to Notion and see if I can figure this out.

[ERC6]

Hi @dvanoni ! Thank you so much for the quick response and for looking into the issue!
It would be great if you could figure this out.

[dvanoni]

I heard back from Notion, and unfortunately their response wasn't super encouraging.

After further review, I can confirm that this is currently the expected behavior for the "notion.blocks.children.append" endpoint. I've forwarded your feedback to the relevant team. While I don't have an immediate fix, I can assure you that your feedback will be considered for future API enhancements.

Until they improve their API, we may need to try a workaround. Perhaps performing a dummy update on the page would do the trick, though unfortunately it would mean an extra network request.

[ERC6]

Not an encouraging response, indeed ...
Unfortunately I'm not much help in making smart suggestions for workarounds to this issue ...
For now, the only thing I can think of doing is creating a “temporary” tag for the article every time I edit a note in Zotero (something I'll probably forget to do ... and which defeats the purpose of having everything as automated as possible in my workflow so I don't forget stuff).
I'll hope they improve their API soon or that a feasible workaround pop up here.

Thanks again!